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The Rise of Europe in The High Middle Ages:
Reactions to Urban Economic Modernity
1050 - 1300
Dan Yamins
History Club
June 2013
Sunday, October 12, 14
Today:
Strands that are common throughout Europe.
Next time:
Two Case Studies:
Hanseatic League (Northern Europe)
The Italian Maritime Republics (Southern Europe)
Sunday, October 12, 14
Interrelated Themes During an “Age of Great Progress”
Demographic: rise of cities and general population increase
Socio-economic: Rise of the middle class, burghers and capitalism
Commercial: intra-European land trade and European maritime powers
Legal: Development of rights charters and challenge to feudal system
Labor & production: Rise of guilds and craft specialization.
The time during which Europe “took off” -- switching places
with Asia / Middle East in terms of social dynamism.
Development of Western modernity
Sunday, October 12, 14
General population increase
For context:
Population levels of Europe during the Middle Ages can be
roughly categorized:
• 150–400 (Late Antiquity): population decline
• 400–1000 (Early Middle Ages): stable at a low level.
• 1000–1250 (High Middle Ages): population boom and
expansion.
• 1250–1350 (Late Middle Ages): stable at a high level.
• 1350–1420 (Late Middle Ages): steep decline (Black death)
• 1420–1470 (Late Middle Ages): stable at a low level.
• 1470–onward: slow expansion gaining momentum in the
early 16th century.
Sunday, October 12, 14
AREA
500
650
1000
1340
1450
Greece/Balkans
5
3
5
6
4.5
Italy
4
2.5
5
10
7.3
Spain/Portugal
4
3.5
7
9
7
Total - South
13
9
17
25
19
France/Low countries
5
3
6
19
12
British Isles
0.5
0.5
2
5
3
Germany/Scandinavia
3.5
2
4
11.5
7.3
Total - West/Central
9
5.5
12
35.5
22.5
Slavia.
5
3
---Russia
6
8
6
---Poland/Lithuania
2
3
2
Hungary
0.5
0.5
1.5
2
1.5
Total -East
5.5
3.5
9.5
13
9.3
TOTAL EUROPE
27.5
18
38.5
73.5
50
Double or tripling of urban population between 1100 and 1200
Sunday, October 12, 14
Demographics: Town physical size
Cologne’s walled enclosure was extended from 122 to 223 ha in 1106, and with the wall begun in 1180 to 403 ha.
At Bologna the Torresotti walls of the late twelfth century enclosed 100 ha, four times the area of the preceding, fifth-century
circuit.
Northampton experienced an almost equal degree of expansion from its tenth-century circuit to one enclosing about 100 ha.
Over the twelfth century Arezzo enlarged its defended area from 17 to 42 ha;
Florence enlarged its threefold to 75 ha; and Pisa’s expanded from 30 to 114 ha after 1162.
Bristol, a vigorous commercial town and regional centre with much maritime trade, grew from practically nothing in the tenth
century to an enclosed area of some 64 ha by the late twelfth
Douai, for example, expanded from 6 ha within the tenth-century comital enclosure to 48 ha within the twelfth-century
Bruges grew from 2 ha within the ninth-century castrum, enlarged under comital patronage in the tenth century by the addition
of 5 ha for the craft and commercial settlement later known as Oudberg (‘old enclosure’), to 76 ha within the wall which existed
by about 1127.
... and numbers
In Germany the number of commercial settlements rose from about ninety in AD 1000, to 140 in
1100 and to 250 by 1200.
In England the comparable totals were about 70, 130 and 230.
Sunday, October 12, 14
Demographics: Distribution
Sunday, October 12, 14
Demographics: From Castrum to Burgus
Many rescued or revitalized old roman towns
London, Paris, Cologne, Rouen, Bath, Dover, Cambridge, Canterbury, Leicester, Winchester,
Nijmegen, Aachen, Augsbury, Bonn, Koblenz, Mainz, Regensburg, Aix-en-Provence, Arles,
Strasbourg, Autun, Limoges, Chartres, Avignon, Tours, Cambrai, Lorraine, Carcassonne,
Digon, Metz, Reims, Poitiers, Marseille, Amiens, Toulouse, Rennes, Nimes, Geneva,
Lausanne, Zurich, Basel, Innsbruck,
Genoa, Florence ... almost everything in Italy, but NOT Venice (which was founded by
Christians in 420 AD).
Terms denoting fortification and enclosure, such as burgus, burh and civitas came to be urban
names
Often a defended extension to an existing town, and townsmen were known as burgenses.
Commonly situated on important river routes.
Sunday, October 12, 14
Reasons for the Rise of the Town:
1) General population increase
2) Breakdown of central authority (e.g. the Carolingian
kingship, the HRE)
3) Developments in Trade.
4) Need for fortifications.
5) Monasteries developed into
communities which became towns.
6) The stability engendered by the institutional strengthening
of the feudal system; and its economic (agricultural) and legal/
military constraints (vassalage).
Sunday, October 12, 14
Commercial Revolution: Military
Military demands did much to stimulate urban industry.
One of the three crafts in tenth-century England, most popular: shieldmaker, who used leather,
while the other two were tanning and butchery, occupying places in the same supply chain.
Eleventh-century London had a reputation for its stock of hauberks, made of leather and iron.
Sunday, October 12, 14
Trade development: Transit centers
Some of the largest and most populous cities owed their standing to their handling of a transit trade and to their role as centres
for collecting and redistributing goods.
Cologne gained a commanding position in the
Rhine trade, served overland routes to the
west and north-east, and also came to be an
important market for the products of the
Meuse valley.
Mainz had similar position
Rouen controlled the valuable wine trade of the Seine.
Lille appears to have prospered as a market supplying
corn from southern Flanders to the expanding towns
of the north
Damme, founded before 1180 as the outport
of Bruges, soon came to specialize in handling
wine and salt from France.
Sunday, October 12, 14
Damme
Rouen
Cologne
Meuse Valley
Mainz
Trade development: Specialization and crafts
In the twelfth century the specialized craft came to occupy a more distinctive role in urban life
than formerly
Linen and woolen textiles from the north
Silks from constantinople
Linens from mainz
Flanders: cheese and fish
Meuse valley: brass goods and wine
Zurich: copper
Cloths and tin from liege and huy and england
Towards the end of the twelfth century Milan was
becoming widely known for its production of
armour and Pisa for its export of iron from the ore
mined in its territories of Elba and Piombino.
Salt ... allowed certain foods ... to be stockpiled
and traded as standard commodities ... was a
staple of Lübeck’s trade.
Sunday, October 12, 14
Trade development: North / South Specialization
Cloths specifically from Flanders and Champagne appeared in the Genoese market ... many
northern French and Flemish textile towns were known in Genoa by their names, along with
cloths from England and Germany.
Market advantage and accumulation of skill, rather
than the simple availability of materials, came to be
key factors in urban industry.
The weapons and armor produced in Cologne and Milan used iron from Liege,
Bergamo and Brescia, not the immediate vicinity.
In the brass- working towns of the Meuse valley, copper and tin were brought in
over great distances.
Sunday, October 12, 14
Trade development: North / South Specialization
Merchants from north of the Alps were regular
visitors to Italy about 1020, bringing linen and
woollen cloths, tin, swords, horses and slaves to
the royal palace at Pavia.
Italian merchants also travelled north. They were at
Ardres, near Calais, in the late eleventh century “in
order to do their business in England”. The trade in
woollen and linen textiles was above all responsible
for strengthening commercial links between north
and south.
Arras tapestry imported into Italy
Sunday, October 12, 14
Trade development: North / South Specialization
Some of these textiles were supplied to the local market in and around Genoa, but by the
1180s many of them were shipped overseas to substantial markets in Sicily, Constantinople,
Syria, Alexandria and the Maghreb.
Sunday, October 12, 14
Trade Faires: A Catalyst of the Commercial Revolution
A system of seasonal fairs developed in Lombardy (Milan) from the tenth century onwards.
Flanders and parts of Germany fairs proliferated and gained regional importance.
Fair cities acquired new streets and marketplaces to accommodate the traders
Sunday, October 12, 14
The Champagne Faires
Annual cycle of trading fairs held in towns in the Champagne and Brie
regions of France
"Veritable nerve centers" serving as a premier market for textiles, leather,
fur, and spices.
The fairs linked the cloth-producing cities of the Low Countries with
the Italian dyeing and exporting centers, with Genoa in the lead
From the south came silk, pepper and other spices, drugs, coinage and the new concepts of credit
and bookkeeping.
The series of six fairs, each lasting more than
six weeks, were spaced through the year's
calendar.
To cross the Alps, the caravans made a
journey that took more than a month
from Genoa to the fair cities.
Sunday, October 12, 14
The Development of Credit and Banking
Urban trade revolved heavily around credit, wine particularly,
In most cases, an importer or nobleman would import wine (on
credit)
Then sell it out to wealthy merchants who in turn sold it to local
taverns or vendors (again on credit)
These transactions involved more than one middle man .... and several steps of transaction, so
credit was the key currency expander.
Credit obtained at the tables (“banche”) of Italian money-changers ... loans to nobility, and
settling bills of exchange from the last fair.
Sunday, October 12, 14
Guilds
Guilds -- organizations of people in the same industry to control it -- were one of THE
central organizing features of European life.
Confraternities of textile workers, masons,
carpenters, carvers, glass workers, &c &c, each
of whom controlled secrets of traditionally
imparted technology ... the "arts" or "mysteries" of
their crafts.
The path was: Apprentice --> Journeyman --> Master
Master craftsmen were considered “free” or
“independent” if they left their guild ...
but that meant they had to go to a city that didn’t
have a guild in that craft.
Sunday, October 12, 14
Guilds
Craftsmen were usually in a more privileged position than the peasantry in societal hierarchy
“Historically, craftsmen tended to concentrate in urban centers and formed guilds”
-- pretty much sums the whole thing up.
Sunday, October 12, 14
Guilds
Guilds are important for socio-historic reasons that redound throughout European and world
history:
1) their craft-dedication defined and continues to define the European outlook
2) the social order and superstructure of production they created evolved into a regime that
deeply impacted thinkers like Marx (among others) and formed the basis against which the
social upheavals of later centuries reacted. Basically, their ideal still informs labor relations
today.
3) the “closed shop” system they built
provided a counterpoint against which e.g.
the American ideal could develop
Sunday, October 12, 14
The Burghers of the Burgs
Wikipedia: Burgher may refer to:
• A citizen of a borough or town, especially one
belonging to middle class
• A resident of a burgh
• A Great or Grand Burgher (German Großbürger/
Großbürgerin), historical German title acquired or
inherited by persons and family descendants of the
ruling class in autonomous German-speaking cities
and towns
the Burghers of Calais (Rodin)
• In medieval European cities, a social class from
which city officials could be drawn; see Medieval
bourgeoisie
• More loosely, a member of the urban middle class
Jakob Fugger von der Lilie Großbürger zu Augsburg
Sunday, October 12, 14
The Burghers of the Burgs
Townsmen and traders came to occupy an increasingly distinct role in the governance
of towns.
Throughout the eleventh century, in both north and south, the actions of groups of leading
townsmen are increasingly evident.
For example, during the disagreement between Gregory VII (pope) and Henry IV (HRE) in 1080: “In Mainz the burghers
supported Henry, whereas their town lord, the archbishop, sided with [his rival nobility]. When he had him anointed and crowned
in his episcopal church the burghers rioted and expelled both the rival king and their own lord, just as the burghers of Worms and
Cologne had done during the Saxon wars. It seems as if the rising social classes of the town burghers generally tended more to
support the traditional royal line than did elements of the nobility.”
“In Amsterdam, wealthy, democratic burghers built a planned
city of tree-shaded canals ...”
Early on, the burghers were typically master craftsmen and
members of guilds ... (it all ties together).
Sunday, October 12, 14
The Burghers of the Burgs
15th century the group of legally coequal "burghers" started to split into three different groups:
1) grand-burghers
2) ordinary-burghers (German Kleinbürger or simply Bürger, made up largely of artisans,
tradesman, small merchants, shopkeepers and others who were obliged according to constitution to
acquire the ordinary-burghership) and
3) non-burghers, the latter being merely "inhabitants" of a city or town without specific legal rights
and largely consisted of the working class, foreign workers and others who were neither able nor
permitted to acquire burghership.
The nebulousness of the original Burgher definition was important: the concept underwent a
potent evolution into the Bourgeoisie
--> a social class “characterized by their ownership of capital, and their related culture”;
--> which owns the means of production and whose societal concerns are the value of
property and the preservation of capital,
Sunday, October 12, 14
Legal Consequences
In the Holy Roman Empire, a Free Imperial City was a self-ruling city that enjoyed imperial
immediacy, and as such, was subordinate only to the emperor, as opposed to a territorial city
or town (Landstadt) which was subordinate to a territorial lord.
The Flemish cloth cities;
c. 1250.
Bruges
Free Imperial Cities
City rights were a medieval phenomenon in the history of the Low Countries. A liegelord,
(like a count or duke), granted a settlement town privileges that settlements without city
rights did not have.
A settlement was sometimes only called a “city” when it was granted (or collected) a complete
package of city rights at one time of its history
Sunday, October 12, 14
Legal Consequences
In France, market towns (burgs) with limited privileges were established by local lords. In
the late 11th century, "communes", governing assemblies, began to develop in towns.
Starting sporadically in the late 10th, and increasingly in the 12th century, many towns
and villages were able to gain economic, social or judicial privileges and franchises from
their lords (exemptions from tolls and dues, rights to clear land or hold fairs, some judicial
or administrative independence, etc.)
Le prévôt des marchands et les échevins de Paris.
Sunday, October 12, 14
Legal Consequences
Town rights were specific, but negotiated on a city-by-city basis. From 1100, was the
acquisition, by negotiation or force, of rights by merchants from one city in other cities under
different rulers. Granted in the form of charters.
Privileges
• City walls (the right to erect a defense wall around an inhabited
area)
• Market right (the right to hold a market and receive income from
the markets)
• Storage right (the right to store and exclusively trade particular
goods, often only granted to a few cities)
• Toll right (the right to charge toll)
• Mint right (the right to mint city coinage)
Freedoms
• Personal freedom (citizens had a relative degree of personal freedom
in comparison to citizens of rural areas: they were not subject to the
liegelord and had freedom of mobility) — Hence the old saying
Stadslucht maakt vrij ('City air makes free').
Governance
• City governance (Well-to-do citizens could sometimes elect local
government officials)
• Judiciary and law making (Within its boundaries the city could
have a large degree of autonomy)
• Taxation (the right to levy taxes)
Sunday, October 12, 14
The Town Charter of Flensburg (1284)
Concept of “major” emerged as a
civil, burgher-level official. Also
called “rector” or “podesta”.
Legal Consequences
Magdeburg Rights the most important set of medieval city laws
As with most medieval city laws, the rights were primarily
targeted at regulating trade to the benefit of the local merchants
and artisans, but also:
-- the duties of municipal authorities-- the jurisdiction and procedure of courts
-- questions of land ownership within the city
-- the settlement of property disputes
-- the grounds for seizure of movables, and the punishment for
various crimes
•
•
•
•
Kulm law
Lübeck law
Lydford law
Danzig Law
External merchants coming into the city were not allowed to trade on their own, but instead
forced to sell the goods they had brought into the city to local traders, if any wished to buy
them.
Jews and Germans were sometimes competitors in those cities. Jews lived under privileges that
they carefully negotiated with the king or emperor. (al dhimma)
Sunday, October 12, 14
Legal Consequences
Of special importance were inter-city trading privilege rights.
Between 1155 and 1158 Henry II gave the men of St Omer the right to trade freely and to
occupy houses in London -- remaining in force until Edward III banned export.
direct negotiation
Succeeded by the men of Cologne, who in 1194 ... established rights at
a guildhall there.
Guildhall, London
Sunday, October 12, 14
The Urban Environment: Building & Architecture
Building was one of the dominant characteristics of town life.
Remodelling of townscapes was commonly associated with the imposition of fortifications,
and the rebuilding of cathedral and abbey churches. Smiths and smiths’ streets were
prominent from the tenth century onwards.
In Paris series of Royal initiatives moved city center from La Greve (river bank, after
which “strike” gets in modern French name) to north-western margin of the settlement,
where it was much better placed for road traffic.
New technological discoveries allowed the development of
the Gothic architecture
Les prevost de marchands ... détentrice depuis 1170 du
monopole de l'approvisionnement par voie fluviale, constitua
progressivement la municipalité de Paris
Sunday, October 12, 14
The Urban Environment: Consequences
Rapid and disorderly urban growth generated problems of its own, of which the most serious
was fire.
Great Fire of London
St. Eligius Saves the Basilica in Paris from fire
... led by the early thirteenth century to the formulation of sophisticated regulations governing
building materials and the use of fire-proof party walls.
....Sanitary problems also generated rules for disposal of rubbish and rainwater.
In the thirteenth century an English queen of a century before was remembered as the founder
of a public latrine!
Sunday, October 12, 14
Interrelated Themes During an “Age of Great Progress”
Demographic: rise of cities and general population increase
Socio-economic: Rise of the middle class, burghers and capitalism
Commercial: intra-European land trade and European maritime powers
Legal: Development of rights charters and challenge to feudal system
Labor & production: Rise of guilds and craft specialization.
The time during which Europe “took off” -- switching places
with Asia / Middle East in terms of social dynamism.
Development of Western modernity
Sunday, October 12, 14
Next Time
Two Case Studies:
Hanseatic League (Northern Europe)
The Italian Maritime Republics (Southern Europe)
Sunday, October 12, 14
The Hanseatic League
Sunday, October 12, 14
The Hanseatic League
A group of (mostly) German towns that, over the course of
the 12-14th c. banded together into a trading consortium.
Towns that were members basically always were towns with
town-rights. (e.g. Madgeburg-style laws)
Individual traders who were members were basically always
citizens of the towns and members of one or another guild.
The goal of the league was to obtain comparative advantage
for its members in trading arrangements with other towns in
the league and at non-member trading posts.
Sunday, October 12, 14
The Hanseatic League
Two towns at the core of the league were Lubeck and
Hamburg.
Sunday, October 12, 14
Lübeck
“Queen of the Hanse”
In 1226 Emperor Frederick II elevated the town to the
Free City of Lübeck.
Governed by ruling council of twenty members, dominated by merchants. Lübeck politics were
dominated by trade interests for next several centuries centuries.
Lübeck became a base for merchants from Saxony and Westphalia trading eastward and
northward.
This area was a source of timber, wax, amber, resins, furs, along with rye and wheat brought
down on barges from the hinterland
Lubeck fishing boats had easy access to the herring spawning grounds off the coast of Scania
Sunday, October 12, 14
Lübeck
Lubeck fishing boats had
easy access to the herring
spawning grounds off the
coast of Scania
Lübeck became a base for
merchants from Saxony and
Westphalia trading eastward and
northward.
This area was a source of
timber, wax, amber, resins,
furs, along with rye and wheat
brought down on barges from
the south (inland) areas.
Sunday, October 12, 14
Hamburg
officially the Der Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg
The canal in the center of the city
The modern port of hamburg
In 1188 Hamburg adopted the Lübeck law
In 1189, Frederick I "Barbarossa" granted Hamburg the
status of an Imperial Free City and tax-free access up the
Lower Elbe into the North Sea.
Run by the Burgermeister (the mayor) with a council of
burghers. Burgermeister was effectively the head of state,
since the HRE didn’t really exert much direct control.
The burgerstadt council room.
Hamburg, on the other side of the Jutland peninsula from Lubeck, had easy access to the salt
produced in the salt mines at Kiel, and salting and drying of meat and fish made transport and
distribution possible.
Sunday, October 12, 14
Hamburg + Lubeck = Core of League
North canal
ElbeLubeck
canal
Fish (via Lubeck, from eastern North Sea) salted with salt
(via Hamburg).
Sunday, October 12, 14
Hamburg + Lubeck = Core of League
In1241, Lübeck, which had access to the Baltic and North Sea fishing grounds, formed an
alliance with Hamburg, another trading city, which controlled access to salt-trade routes from
Lüneburg.
Cologne joined them in the Diet of 1260
In 1266, a contract between Henry III of England and Hamburg's traders allowed them to
establish a hanse in London. The prototype of negotiated foreign trading posts used by the
Hansa.
Danzig (Gdansk), whose port was a
gateway to the eastern Baltic also
joined, as did most of the important
Baltic port cities
It continued for some 300 years. Its
network of alliances grew to 170 cities
-- from Krakow in the East to
Zuiderzee (holland) in the West.
Lübeck and Hamburg remained at its
core throughout
Sunday, October 12, 14
Hanseatic Shipping Practices
Hanseatic cargoes were typically salt, herring, grain, timber, honey, amber, ships stores, and other bulk commodities. These
were not cargos that made quick fortunes, but they were steady. Hansa held monopoly on them.
Hansa had produced a new and innovative ship design, the Baltic cog.
Before the development of the cog ships in the north of Europe were
built in the same design as the viking ships of old-- could handle only
limited amounts of cargo. The cog held about 5-10 times as much
(10-20 tons instead of at most 2).
Flat bottoms they were well fitted for sailing in shallow waters.
Common practice was to form partnerships and have each
merchant buy a share of a cargo or a share of a ship.
Ships rarely sailed alone but usually joined into large convoys
for mutual protection. The convoys would sail following the
seasonal winds and make the circuit in a year's time.
Sunday, October 12, 14
Hanseatic Land-based practices
Land-based production was very important to the league -- since it
joined shipping and inland wares.
River and over-land routes through France and Rhineland were of
major importance, both southerly toward the Italian republics and
northerly for goods produced by French, Dutch, and Germany towns
to flow to collection centers.
The base of operations for a merchant was his “faktorei” -- that is, factory.
Usually a three storied structure containing on the lowest floor the retail
outlet where buying and selling took place, on the second floor a
warehouse, and on the topmost floor offices and living quarters.
Three-floor factory design.
Foreign trading posts were called Kontoren (“counters”)
London (Steelyard), Ipswich, Bruges, Bergen (Bryggen), and Novgorod (Peterhof)
Sunday, October 12, 14
League Organization
Very little in the way of centralized administration (It had no common seal or charter).
However, there was a Hansetag (or Tagfahrt) -- a central meeting held semi-regularly to
discuss and come to consensus on important issues.
Member communities from different regions were pooled, first into three parts (or “drittels”),
then chose envoys (Ratssendeboten) to represent their local consensus at the Hansetag:
... then later into quarters:
Sunday, October 12, 14
Hanseatic Political involvement
Mostly a trade organization without strong political structures, but a notable exception was the war with Denmark in 1362.
Began in 1361, when Danish king Valdemar Atterdag conquered Scania, Öland, and Gotland with the major Hanseatic town
Visby.
A Hanseatic counterstrike was repelled by the Danish fleet at Helsingborg -- leading the unsuccessful (for the hansa) end of the
first Danish-Hanseatic war.
Unwilling to accept the results, the Hanseatic League, which used to be a trade league rather than a political
union, raised a fleet by constituting the Confederation of Cologne in 1367, a de-facto military wing of the Hansa.
In the following battles, Valdemar was utterly defeated.
1) The freedom of Visby was reestablished.
2) Denmark had to assure the Hanseatic League
of free trade in the entire Baltic Sea.
3) Hanseatic League given a monopoly on the
Baltic fish trade.
4) The league also gained the right to veto
against Danish throne candidates.
Treaty of Stralsund (1370)
Negotiated by the burgomaster Jakob Pleskow of Lübeck
Sunday, October 12, 14
Hanseatic Decline
The Hansa begin to decline in the 15th c.
Several external causes:
The North European countries were on their way to become national states, trying to raise and protect a
competitive trade of their own.
The North German princes exerted increasing pressure on the Hanseatic towns, causing some of these cities to loose
their independence by the 15th century.
Growing competition of the English and Dutch -- and Danish/Swedish -- trade. Hansa couldn’t go to war with everyone
over trade routes, and the Atlantic-facing seafarers were better.
Also some internal factors: control from Hansa was not ultimately in the best interests of all the individual towns:
Clashes of interest between coastal and inland towns, as coastal towns tended to take over the more profitable
trade on the North and Baltic Sea, pushing down the inland towns to mere suppliers.
Also, e.g.: Cologne merchants in England left the Hanseatic line in 1460s, as England was the most
important trading partner for Cologne ... when Cologne objected to the the taxes imposed by the Hansa
diet as too high, and thought they could strike out on their own
In many ways, were victims of their own success, as others started emulating their practices.
Sunday, October 12, 14
Southern Europe: Italian Maritime Republics
A number of city-states which flourished in Italy and Dalmatia (present day Croatia) in the
Middle Ages.
Typically, called “comune”, e.g. “comune di Venezia”.
Sunday, October 12, 14
Venice
Genoa
Almalfi
Pisa
Southern Europe: Italian Maritime Republics
Lack of safety on the mainland trading routes, made possible the development of major
commercial routes along the coast of the Mediterranean.
Growing independence acquired by some coastal cities gave them a leading role in the
European scene
On the institutional level, the cities formed from autonomous Republican governments, an
expression of the merchant class, which constituted the backbone of their power.
History of the maritime republics intertwines both with the launch of European expansion to the
East, and with the origins of modern capitalism as a mercantile and financial system
Two main players: Genoa and Venice.
Sunday, October 12, 14
Sunday, October 12, 14
Sunday, October 12, 14
Genoa (Genova -- “genovese”)
Genoa was one of the first cities in
Italy to have some citizenship rights
granted by local feudatories.
the lighthouse of genoa
Before 1100, Genoa emerged as an independent city-state, one of a number of Italian citystates during this period. Nominally, the Holy Roman Emperor was overlord and the Bishop
of Genoa was president; however, actual power wielded by "consuls" annually elected by
popular assembly (don’t know how many).
Genoa started expanding during the First Crusade
The apex of Genoese fortune came in the 13th century with the conclusion of the Treaty of
Nymphaeum (1261) -- defeat of the Venetians.
Sunday, October 12, 14
Genoa (Genova -- “genovese”)
Sunday, October 12, 14
Genoa (Genova -- “genovese”)
The Genoese fortress in Sudak, Ukraine.
Galata Tower (1348) in Galata,Istanbul.
Sunday, October 12, 14
Genoa (Genova -- “genovese”)
Genovese bankers were the financiers of the Spanish empire.
The Genoese bankers provided the unwieldy Habsburg system with fluid credit and a
dependably regular income. In return the less dependable shipments of American silver were
rapidly transferred from Seville to Genoa, to pay forward for further ventures.
Company of Saint George (Italian: Banco or Ufficio di San
Giorgio) was a financial institution of the Republic of
Genoa. Founded in 1407. ... One of the oldest chartered
banks in Europe, and maybe the world.
Banco di San Giorgio
Many of Genoa's overseas territories were governed either directly or indirectly by the Bank.
Sunday, October 12, 14
Venice
Having started sometime during the 5thc, from the 9th to the
12th century, Venice developed into a city state
The early phase of “feudalization“ together with the acquisition of
wide real estates, brought huge amounts of capital to certain families.
These families used their wealth to conquered dalmatian pirates, who resisted until 1000.
Opening up trade routes.
In compensation for military aid against the Arabs of southern Italy, Byzantine emperor Basil II
reduced the tax for Venetian ships trading at Constantinople by half.
A treaty with Charles the Fat, HRE, had opened northern European territories.
In addition Venetians started trade with Tunisia and Alexandria in Egypt where they delivered
wood, weapons, metal and slaves
Sunday, October 12, 14
Venice
City became a flourishing trade center between Western Europe and the rest of the world
(especially the Byzantine Empire and theIslamic world).
By contracting transport and financing for the 4th crusade (1204), Venice became a major
power-broker in the Near East and established trading hold in the “Latin Empire”.
Acquired control of most of the islands in the Aegean, including
Cyprus and Crete
Venice remained closely associated with Constantinople, granted
trading privileges in the Eastern Roman Empire
siege of Constantinople
Venice mounted many trading voyages. Idea was to exchange them from alum, silk,
other commodities available only the in East. Enter one port with low prices for one
commodity and then move to another port with higher prices for that same
commodity.
Later on, after the fall of the Byzantine empire, ships travelled often in convoys.
Notice that the Venetians didn’t make anything themselves -- they neither “sowed nor did the
reap”.
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Venice
Sunday, October 12, 14
Venetian fort in Nafplion, Greece
Venetian Governmental Structure
Ruled by a Doge, who shared power with a council composed of 480 members taken
from patrician families,
1032, marks the end of a de facto hereditary Dogeship, and become elected (for life).
In the 12th century, the aristocratic families of Rialto further diminished the Doge's powers by
establishing the Minor Council (1175), composed of six advisers of the Doge,
and the Quarantia (1179) as a supreme tribunal.
Venice claimed to be a "Republic", but actually it was a mixed
government model, combining monarchy in the Doge, aristocracy in the
senate, and a "democracy" of Rialto families in the Major Council.
Inspiration for later political theorists
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Venetian Financial Innovations
1. Companies
The kinds of merchant voyages undertaken were very risky and needed capital. To fund them, Venetian mechants organized
new corporate innovations. The typical form of company was the so-called Colleganza.
A silent partner (the “stans”) introduced about three quarters of the capital investment. The active partner (the “tractans”), who
actually conducted the trade, introduced the rest.
Aims, responsibility assignment and shares were fixed before the journey being started, but the active partner could also reinvest h
gains during the same journey. This way the risks were spread, and the opportunities to accumulate capital increased.
The Colleganze were the direct precursor of the great joint stock companies of a later period.
At the beginning, lots of new untested unconnected people took on the role of the tractans; allowed for many rags-to-riches
stories. Later, close relationships and dependencies were developed and as a consequence family partnerships were largely
preferred.
2. Accounting
Double-entry bookkeeping was developed: first described in 1464 by Fra Luca Pacioli, but supposedly used for a century or
more before, based on idea that all transactions are dual. There’s a credit and debit side to a ledger at all times, and they need to
be kept separate and balanced at the end up a regular period (day, usually).
Double-entry bookkeeping lead to adoption of Arabic numerals in Venice.
3. Credit and banking.
The idea of extending credit in he form of guaranteed loans -- backed by a state-regulated capital requirement -- become
current in Venice be the end of the 12th c.
Sunday, October 12, 14
Venetian Financial Innovations
Probably the Merchant of Venice refers to a the colleganza (in which Shylock is the “stans”) that
is about to fail ...
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Venetian Decline
In the early 14th century, Venice was one of the richest cities in Europe.
At first, involvement in all the innovations that made Venice great were fairly equitable, e.g.
you didn’t have to be an elite to become the tractans in a Colleganza.
But in late 14th c, things began to change. Change was so striking a change that the Venetians
gave it a name: La Serrata, or the closure.
Started as political control, in which no new families could enter the Major Council.
But it become commercial, as opportunities become increasingly limited for new entrants. By
1310, colleganza contracts -- which benefited new merchants - were banned.
A further development came in 1314 when the Venetian state began to take over and nationalize
trade
Long-distance trade became the preserve of the nobility. This was the beginning of the end of
Venetian prosperity
La Serrata was the beginning of the end for them, and for Venetian prosperity more
generally. By 1500, Venice’s population was smaller than it had been in 1330
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Overall Comparison of North Vs South:
Key similarities:
Strong link between town (civitas), politics (town rights),
merchant (bourgeois) power, and banking.
Laid groundwork for capitalism and modern European (post-feudal)
society.
Went into decline for a variety of reasons in 1400s.
Differences:
Italians were not as unified, and spent more effort warring -- but
were more dynamic.
Italian cities didn’t “make anything themselves” but mostly just
traded.
Italian independence lasted much longer (until 19th c).
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